Apart from a thermal isolation, gloves typically serve to protect the hands. Injuries may be avoided by resisting or at least cushioning mechanical impacts onto the hand. For example, working gloves are typically made from stable and tear-resistant materials to reduce the risk of cuts to the hand.
A goalkeeper glove fulfills several functions. Apart from improving the grip on the inner side of the hand, it is important to protect the hand against the substantial mechanical loads when deflecting a sharply shot ball. A particular risk for a goalkeeper glove is hyper-extension of individual fingers or the thumb. When a goalkeeper tries to deflect a ball with an extended hand, there is a risk that one or more fingers of the extended hand, which barely contact the ball, will be subjected to the full impact and therefore the finger joints may be hyper-extended. As a result, joints or bones of the finger(s) and/or the hand may be strained or even broken.
Accordingly, in cases where hands and wrists are subjected to particularly high loads, it has been known to include reinforcing elements with goalkeeper gloves and gloves for sports (such as snowboard gloves). The reinforcing elements allow the fingers to bend in a gripping direction, while resisting a bending of the extended fingers in the opposite direction, i.e., in the direction of a hyper-extension. In the case of a goalkeeper glove, the extended hand and in particular individual fingers and the thumb are supported by the glove when deflecting a sharply shot ball.
To obtain the desired mechanical properties, DE 35 16 545 C2 describes manufacturing the backside of a goalkeeper glove in certain areas in two layers. A series of compression-proof bodies forming a second layer are arranged on a flexible but non-yielding first layer (for example a suitable foil). A glove having such a backside can easily bend in a gripping direction, since the first, flexible layer does not provide any significant resistance against such a deformation. However, if the hand and the glove are extended, the compression-proof bodies of the second layer contact each other. Due to the non-yielding nature of the first layer, hyper-extension of the fingers is avoided.
In contrast to the joints of the fingers, the wrist not only enables a bending of the hand towards the palm of the hand, which is designated as flexion in the following (see FIG. 8b). The wrist also enables bending, in the opposite direction towards the back of the hand, which is designated as extension in the following (see FIG. 8a). Use of a protector against hyper-extension configured for fingers would therefore resist an extension of the wrist and limit the range of motion of hands in an undesirable way. Therefore, the protection against hyper-extension described in DE 35 16 545 C2 is not appropriate for use with the wrist.
In order to avoid hyper-extension of the wrist beyond a maximum normal bending, U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,449 describes a wrist protection with a first rigid brace in the area of the hand and a second rigid brace in the area of the lower arm. The first and second rigid braces are connected by a joint that prevents a bending of the hand beyond a maximum normal bending by a mechanical stop. However, this construction is complex and may limit the mobility of the hand. In addition, a rapid bending of the hand (which may be caused by application of a strong external force), which is suddenly stopped by the mechanical stop may apply a strong impact force to the arm. Application of such an impact force to the arm may not be desired and may even cause pain.
Such a sudden stop can be avoided by use of semi-rigid elements that are arranged on the back of the hand. Examples of such gloves are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,526,592 B1, U.S. Pat. No. 1,377,103, and U.S. Publication No. 2007/0022512 A1. However, such semi-rigid elements substantially limit the mobility of the hand and do not allow an extension of the wrist up to a maximum angle, since during this bending, a distance along the back of the hand and the lower arm is shortened. This distance shortening can be recognized, for example, from the formation of folds on the back side of a glove or the skin of a hand. Since the semi-rigid elements cannot provide such a shortening, the bending of the hand is limited if the glove carrying these elements is firmly seated at a hand. If not, one end of the semi-rigid elements poke into the lower arm, which is painful.
U.S. Publication No. 2009/0281470 A1 describes a glove with members in the area of the fingers in order to prevent hyper-extension, similar to the protection described in DE 3 516 545 C2. International Publication No. WO 2008/008166 A2 describes a glove with elastically stretchable strips that are arranged on the fingers on the palm side of the hand. The strips are pre-tensioned, causing the finger element associated therewith to curl in a direction of the fingers for gripping an article. German utility model DE 20 2009 006 521 U1 describes a hand protector with finger protection units. Similarly, German utility model DE 200 23 139 U1 relates to a goalkeeper glove with support elements arranged on the back of the fingers. These finger protection units, however, are not affected when the wrist is bent.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,057 B2 describes a protective sporting glove with a thumb protection, which has two sections that are movable with respect to each other and which enable a bending of the thumb. A hyper-extension of the thumb is prevented by a mechanical stop.
The solutions described in the prior art against hyper-extension of the wrist may limit mobility of the wrist and/or may create an undesirable sudden stop of a bending of the wrist. Further, their construction is complex. As a result, it may be desirable to provide a wrist protector for a sport glove, which protects the wrist against hyper-extension and which does not limit mobility. In addition, it may be desirable to provide wrist protector that is easier to manufacture.